


Family Dinner

by xaidualcx



Category: Once Upon A Time - Fandom, Once Upon a Time (TV), SwanQueen - Fandom, Swen, ouat, swan queen - Fandom
Genre: F/F, Family Dinner, Pancakes, Remma - Freeform, SQ - Freeform, Swan Queen - Freeform, Swan-Mills Family, Swen - Freeform, fluff i guess ??, nice, saviorqueen, snow knows lol, swanqueen - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-05
Updated: 2015-04-08
Packaged: 2018-03-21 10:30:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 5,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3688851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xaidualcx/pseuds/xaidualcx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yes, I am back. Yes, I am still bad at titles.</p><p>•In which Emma can’t make pancakes and needs help from her mom; Regina tries to make Henry as happy as she possibly can (as per usual) and Henry sure loves those french fries. Oh and also SwanQueen. Yeah, that too. •</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. ONCE IT’S BURNT, IT’S BURNT

**Author's Note:**

> P.S.: My summaries are always this bad please do try to read this thing I promise it’ll be worth it ok
> 
> P.P.S.: No major spoilers (apart from Snow having a baby lol) so you can read this no matter which season you’re at :") 
> 
> P.P.P.S.: HUGE DISCLAIMER I OBVIOUSLY OWN NOTHING APART FROM THIS FANFICTION I DO NOT OWN OUAT LEAVE ME BE

“Shit!” Emma exclaimed, retreating from the sizzling pan she was using. She was trying to make pancakes. You'd think a woman who had spent most of her life on her own would be able to make pancakes without hurting herself, but that was not the case. “Hey—! Emma! No swearing!”  
Snow was sitting on the sofa in the living-room, knitting a sweater for her newborn baby. Emma made her way to her mother, tried to get some flour off her forehead with her arm, exhaled and looked at her. “Really? I’m going on 30 and you’re trying to teach me not to cuss now? You're about twenty years late.”  
Snow looked at her and scoffed. “Excuse me, I was under the power of a curse? I didn’t even know I was anyone’s mother.”  
“Yeah, yeah. That’s beside my point.” She looked around, only to look back at Mary Margaret. Well, Snow White. That whole thing still confused her, at times she wasn’t really sure what to call her. “You know you could help me, right? I’m this close to setting fire to the goddamn house.”  
Snow looked away from her knitting to give her a look.  
Emma blew a strand of her hair away from her eye. She put her hands on her hips. “What?”  
Snow raised her eyebrow. Emma sighed. “Fine. This house. I’m this close to setting fire to this house. Not goddamn, not anything damn. House.” There was a short pause. Emma clapped her hands together. “Well. Well done Emma, gold star, everyone’s happy, are you gonna help me now?!”  
Snow laughed, put away her knitting and did her best to get up. Though the baby had already been born, it was difficult for her to do certain things she used to do with ease; such as running, walking up the stairs, and, yes, getting up from the sofa. She put her hand on Emma’s shoulder and walked into the kitchen. This whole situation was entirely new to her, even though she had had the time to digest the news about the whole fairytale thing, she still hadn’t gotten entirely accustomed to Emma being her daughter. It just felt very strange and unlikely to her, and there was still the uncomfortableness of having discussed certain things with her that no mother would dream to discuss with her daughter. But she loved her, and if she had to have a nearly-thirty-year-old daughter she hadn't known anything about for twenty-eight years, she was glad it was her. And Emma was doing such a good job accepting everything. She was proud of her. Even though she wasn’t doing half that good a job with those pancakes. “My God,” Snow coughed and did her best not to inhale all the smoke. “This smells like a bonfire!” She laughed lightly, but then instantly wished she hadn’t, because that made her start to cough again. Emma put her hands in her pockets. She was embarrassed. “Can’t you, uh… fix it?” She asked, but immediately realized how stupid that must've sounded; because, of course she couldn’t fix it. Might as well ask a fireman to “fix” a burnt house. Once it’s burnt, it’s burnt. Snow laughed. “Fix it? I’m not the one who’s been taking magic lessons with Regina. If you can’t fix it, I can’t.” She opened the kitchen window to let out the smoke. Emma had to look down and smile a little at that remark. She let out a small laugh. “Well, we haven’t really been through the un-burning pancakes routine yet. It wasn’t exactly the main topic.” Snow turned around to look at her and shook her head, lightly. “Why don’t we feed these to Pongo? I’ll make some new ones.” Emma smiled as she started to display her burnt pancakes on a tray. “I like that idea.”  
\- one hour later -  
“They’re ready!” Snow walked out of the kitchen holding a tray of what seemed to be about ten perfect-looking pancakes. Since the third week of pregnancy she had started developing an implacable appetite and even though the baby was well out of her stomach now, the appetite had stuck. Emma helped her serve them. “God,” she started to pour maple syrup over them. “How on earth do you do it?”  
Snow smiled. “The real question is how on earth did you manage to live on your own for twenty-eight years without even knowing how to make pancakes without setting something on fire?!” She laughed.  
Emma started eating her pancake. “I—… I don’t know.” She smiled a little. “I managed.”  
She could make pancakes. She had, before. When she was with Henry, in New York, for example. But that hadn’t been real. None of it had. She looked down. Snow was munching on her pancake, quite satisfied with her work. Her eyes lit up. “Oh! Hey,” she swallowed a bite. “Is Henry coming for dinner? Were we supposed to wait for him?” She started to feel guilty at the thought of having forgotten her grandson. God, grandson. Was she really that old?  
Emma drank some of her milk and shook her head. “No,” she took a napkin from the center of the table. “Don’t worry, he’s having dinner with Regina tonight.”  
Snow nodded. Regina. She didn’t like her hanging around that much. Especially not around her daughter. She knew she had to forgive her and she was on her way to do that, really. Regina had put herself through so much to protect her and put their past aside, Snow had decided it was right to do the same. But she was still afraid of her. Very.  
Emma probably sensed the tension at the mention of Regina, because she reached for her mother’s hand. “You’re not still bitter, are you?”  
Snow looked at her. That was a funny remark. 'No, why would I be bitter? She’s only been trying to kill me for as long as I can remember', she thought. Of course she knew it was also her own fault. But of course she was still bitter. If not bitter, well, intimidated. “No.” She tried her best to smile. “Of course not.” She stroked her daughter’s hand and looked away from her eyes. “It’s just… Well. She is dangerous.” Emma raised her eyebrows. Snow looked back at her. “Don’t give me that look! You know she is.” Emma swallowed the last bite of her pancake and moved Snow’s hand from her own. “She is not!” There was a pause. “Well…” Emma looked down. “Not to us. Not anymore.” Snow tilted her head. Emma carried on. “She accepted the fact that Henry is attached to the lot of us, that we’re his family and that taking us away from him would only hurt him. Why can’t we do the same?! As much as I would like to have Henry for my own and take credit for all that she has done, I can’t. She’s been his real mother all these years. I just gave birth to him. And she is his family. You’ve done a wonderful job including her, mom, you really have. But you need to stop thinking of her like some kind of monster.”  
Snow looked at her daughter. Her eyes were... teary? It was clear she really cared about Henry. And Regina. And Regina? Could she—  
The baby. The baby had woken up and started to cry. Snow put her fork down, glanced at Emma and without saying a word, went over to the baby. Emma cleaned up the table and they didn’t talk to each other for the rest of the night.


	2. A LIKABLE IDIOT

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Regina and Henry are having dinner out and he comes up with a good idea. And also eats a lot of fries.

Henry slurped on his cola. He was already done with his dinner.  
Regina had merely started hers. She smiled at him and ran her hand over his hair. “You eat just like your mother.”  
He looked at her and smiled brightly. She bit her tongue. That wasn’t exactly the best remark she could have made. She needed to stop mentioning Emma. But she simply couldn’t. She didn’t do it on purpose. She shook her head as if to get the thought out of it. Of course it didn’t work.  
“Hey!” Henry gulped down the last sip of his cola and nearly made Regina jump out of her skin. “Speaking of my mom,” he put down his glass, “I was thinking: how about we all have dinner together at some point? I mean, the last time that happened I didn’t even remember who you were. And anyway it wasn’t just the three of us.”   
Regina’s face went pale. Which didn’t go unnoticed by Henry. “I mean, we don’t have to if you don’t want to. I just thought maybe—” Regina put her hand on his arm and gave him a reassuring smile. “No, no. Of course I want to. We can do that. We can ask her.” Henry looked satisfied enough. He smiled. “I’m sure she’ll love the idea! You know, she really likes you.”  
Regina looked up from her dinner, startled. Henry looked like he had already forgotten he’d said anything, and was ordering some extra french fries. What did he mean?  
It was probably one of those things children say to get their parents to make up once they’ve had a fight. Or a divorce. But Emma and her hadn’t really had either of those things.  
Really, Regina was starting to like Emma. Even though she was an idiot and not so good an example for Henry to follow. But still. A likable idiot. Sort of.  
Henry was very busy with his fries, but nevertheless he found the time to talk to his mother. “You know,” he munched, “we could just eat at Granny’s.” He seemed really excited all of a sudden, and it made Regina smile. He really loved both of them. She was glad he could have two parental figures in his life now, even though she still had some work to do to get used to it. “Or,” his eyes lit up, “we could—”  
Regina put her hand on his, to calm him down. “How about,” she drank a sip of water, “we just invite her home? Would you like that?” She smiled at him. He smiled back, nodded in approval and went back to his fries.  
Regina didn’t want it to seem like a fancy dinner or anything. Granny's Diner was hardly what you’d call 'fancy' but she didn’t want to go out. Not on their first family dinner, at least. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t do her best for it to be nice for everyone, though. It was a big deal to Henry, she could see that. And what was a big deal to her son was a big deal to her.


	3. NOT ALL MONDAYS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the dinner date is set.

The next morning was a lovely morning. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping and... all that. So, of course, Emma was spending it at work. She was quite annoyed by that fact, but still, she wasn’t having that bad a day at all.  
She was reading some files when the phone rang.  
She picked up. “This is Sheriff Swan, how can I—”  
She was cut off by a throaty female voice she would’ve recognized anywhere.  
“Yes, yes, Miss Swan, I know it’s you.”  
Emma exhaled heavily. “Regina. Is something wrong?”  
“Of course not. If something were wrong I’d know better than to call you. But Henry and I were wondering, could we stop by in around half an hour?”  
Emma furrowed her eyebrows. That was weird. “Uhh, sure? Yeah. I’ll be right here.”  
“Very well, then.”  
Before Emma could ask anything, Regina had hung up. 

After about twenty-five minutes of waiting and reading the same file over and over, Emma heard footsteps approaching and saw her son run in. “Oh, mom!” He ran towards her, to hug her. “Heeey, kid!” Emma held him in her arms. Each time she hugged her son, she felt like all those years of her life spent without him had never existed. She felt like she had always been his mother. Well, of course she had. She had given birth to him, after all. But only now had she had the chance to truly be his mother.   
They parted. She looked at him and couldn’t help but smile. She messed his hair up. “Hey, where’s your mom?”  
As if to answer that question, Regina walked into the room. “I’m right here, Miss Swan.” She smoothed down the sides of her black skirt. Emma smiled. She looked beautiful. Then again, when didn’t she?

Stop it. “Hey.” She said, quietly. Then she realized just how quiet she had just sounded, so she cleared her throat. “Hey. So… what’s the deal, what’s going on?”  
Regina leaned on her desk. “Well, our son,”  
Our son. That sounded so nice. Like they were a family. He wasn’t her son. He was their son. That made Emma feel like she belonged.  
“He… he thought it would be nice if we all had dinner together sometime.”   
Emma probably looked as surprised as she was feeling.   
Regina and Henry exchanged a look, which lead Regina to look back at Emma. “And, well, we… we thought we could all eat at our house.”   
Emma looked at her. Not only did she want the three of them to have dinner together, she wanted the three of them to have dinner alone. Not in public. To her, that felt more intimate. More like… well, a family.   
Emma’s silence made Regina slightly uncomfortable.  
She looked around, waiting for a response. “So…?”   
Emma slightly shook her head as if she had been asleep. “Oh, uh, yes. Yes, of course. That sounds like a good idea.” She managed to blurt out. Henry smiled, but he didn’t look half as relieved as Regina. She moved toward the exit. “So, Monday night?”   
Emma nodded. “Yeah. Monday night.” She hugged Henry again and exchanged an awkward glance with Regina. Then they left and she went back to her files, thinking maybe not all Mondays had to be that bad.


	4. MONDAY MORNING

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which, as you can tell by the chapter’s title, it’s Monday morning and everyone is worrying their head off about the dinner. Apart from Henry who is probably somewhere eating fries. Or at school. Or both.

Monday. 08:15 AM.  
Regina was already up. She always got up that early, but now it was for a special reason. She had to prepare the house for Emma. Well. Not for Emma. For the three of them. For their dinner.  
Regina’s house was always clean, so you wouldn’t think there was much work to do, but she found enough things to be busy with. The dinner menu, for one thing. She had decided to prepare it herself for the occasion. Not that Emma’s opinion about the dinner (or anything, for that matter) was important to her. Of course not. Regina loved cooking. Besides, being a woman who worked and all, she never really had much time to cook her own food. She was glad she had the chance to do it now.  
She forcefully opened the pantry and took a look at what she had stored.  
She ran her fingers over the jars, reading everything carefully.  
She wondered what Emma liked to eat.  
She smiled a little. Probably anything Henry liked to eat.  
She pushed the thought of Emma aside; grabbed a bowl from the cupboard and started working. 

 

Monday. 09:10 AM.  
Emma had been working for about an hour. It wasn’t really a busy day at all, but she couldn’t wait to go home.  
And she couldn’t stop worrying about that dinner, thinking about everything that could possibly go wrong. She wished she didn’t have to worry so much about it, but there she was. She wondered what Regina was doing, if she was just as nervous. She shook her head as if with that simple motion she could get rid of all the worry. Family dinners were the most normal thing on the planet. A family dinner was probably the most normal thing to happen to her ever since the day she had moved to Storybrooke.  
All around the planet, dozens of families were probably having dinner together right now. But that was the thing, Emma thought. They were families. Regina, Henry and her weren’t really a family. Well, they were starting to be one now. And it was difficult.  
The only thing harder than being a family, is becoming one.  
God, she could only hope this was as big a deal to Regina as it was to her.  
One thing she knew for sure, though: it was a big deal to Henry. She had known it was his idea as soon as Regina said it.  
He did care about them both.  
She smiled.  
She really cared about him and Regina, too.


	5. NO NEED

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Regina is a Chef and Emma has 'the talk' with her parents. (Not really.)

Monday. 4:20 PM.  
Regina was delighted to hear the oven go 'ding'. She had settled for pizza. After all, it was one of Henry’s favorite dishes and she thought she couldn’t possibly go wrong with pizza.  
She carefully took it out of the oven. A smile grew upon her face. It smelled delicious.  
She could’ve probably used magic, but she wanted to be able to take as much credit for it as she could. And, yes, maybe she did want to impress Emma just a little bit.  
Oh, but she was hardly done yet. She still wanted to make dessert. She glanced at the clock. They had decided on having dinner at half past seven. She had time.

Monday. 6:00 PM.  
Emma didn’t recall ever being this nervous before.  
She had been home from work for over fifteen minutes, but she hadn’t managed to find anything to wear yet.  
She wouldn’t wear a dress. Not in this lifetime.  
She didn’t want it to look like she thought of it as a fancy dinner.  
Besides, she didn’t own any dresses.  
She sighed loudly enough for her parents to hear her from the living room. Snow knocked on the door.  
“Emma?”  
No answer. She knocked again.  
“Emma. You haven’t said a word since you got back from work. Are you alright?”  
Again, no answer. Charming stroked his wife’s shoulder and cleared his throat.  
“Emma, talk to us. Did something happen?”  
Silence. Then, finally, they heard the door unlock. It opened, to reveal their daughter, Emma, wearing a white, long-sleeved shirt and black trousers. Not too elegant, but classy enough.  
She pulled on the hem of her shirt and looked at them. “Do you think this looks okay?”  
Snow stared at her, as did Charming. They didn’t really know what to say. Sure, she looked beautiful. But okay for what?  
Once she realized she wasn’t going to get an answer, Emma exhaled and made her way to the living room.  
Charming shook his head a little as if he had just come back to his senses. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, it does look okay. But for what?”  
Snow parted from her husband and moved closer to her daughter. “Yes, where are you going?”  
Emma turned to face them. She looked down for a second, then looked back up at her parents. “Uh, I’m having dinner.”  
Snow nodded, expecting further details.  
Emma looked down again. “With Regina.”  
Snow’s eyebrows went up, and Charming’s jaw nearly dropped.  
Sensing way too much silence, Emma looked back up at them and suddenly realized how misleading that had sounded.  
“And Henry!” She quickly added.  
Snow tilted her head. Charming’s eyebrows were knitted together as if he were trying to solve an equation in his head.  
Emma took a breath. “We’re trying to get along… as a family. We have been for a while.”  
She looked at her father. “You know that.”  
He nodded.  
Emma lifted her shoulders as she took another breath. “Well,” she turned to her mother, “in order to do that, we need to do things every other normal family does.”  
Snow looked like she wasn’t really following. Emma raised her eyebrows and went on.  
“Which includes family dinners.”  
Silence. She thought she would receive some sort of response, but both her parents were absolutely still. She scratched her forehead. “No one’s going to get hurt, if that’s what you want to hear.” She said, finally, and grabbed her jacket.  
Charming nodded to himself as if he were still doing the math. Then he looked back at his daughter, who was about to leave. He put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. “Are you sure you don’t want us…” he looked at Snow. She pursed her lips. “Or just me,” he continued, “to come with you?”  
Emma looked at the two of them. She couldn’t tell if they were actually being serious or not. She gently moved her father’s hand from her shoulder.  
“You don’t need to protect me from the woman who raised my son.”  
With that, she turned to face the door, opened it, and left.


	6. 28 YEARS OF WAITING

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which everything and everyone is there and ready for the dinner apart from Emma, but once she arrives…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is such a bad summary but please do read this I will reward you with nothing

Monday. 07:10 PM.  
Regina was pacing the floor impatiently. Everything was ready.  
Henry had set the table, Regina had gotten ahead of herself and had already served the pizzas.  
She had picked out a dress for the occasion: a beige one she hadn’t worn in ages; nothing too elegant, God forbid, but suited for their first ever family dinner.  
The only thing missing was Emma.  
Henry was sat on the sofa. He looked at his mother for a while, tried to read her emotions. She was staring at the door, waiting for a knock, a ring, anything.  
Henry did his best to reassure her. “She’s coming. I know she is.” He said. Regina turned her head in his direction and nodded, looking down.  
Why was she this impatient? Emma wasn’t late or anything. The dinner had been set at 07:30, Emma still had a good ten minutes.  
Regina shook her head a little. She was probably just—  
There. The doorbell. The doorbell!  
Regina nearly launched herself toward the door, but Henry was quicker, and he opened it in one slick motion.  
She looked down for a second. It was probably best for Henry to welcome Emma.  
“Mom!” He jumped at her. “Hey, kid!” They hugged for what felt like a solid twenty minutes to Regina, who was standing behind her son. During the hug, Emma’s eyes met hers. They exchanged a small, awkward smile. Then Emma parted from her son and stepped forward, in Regina’s direction.  
“Hey,” she managed to say.  
Regina looked at her. “The savior, at last!” She chuckled. “For a moment you had me thinking we were going to have to wait another twenty-eight years for you to join us.”  
Emma smiled and looked down.  
Regina impulsively stroked her arm.  
It was the –what?– fourth time she did that? And each time, Emma felt like something inside of her was going to melt. Or explode. Or catch fire.  
“This way.” Regina said, as she led the way to the pizzas.

Emma looked around. It wasn’t her first time in that house, but every time she came over she couldn’t help being mesmerized by its beauty.  
“Here we are,” Regina put her hands on her hips, as if she were expecting some kind of a reaction to her culinary skills.  
Emma noticed. “That looks… delicious!” She blurted out.  
Regina smiled. “Doesn’t look half as good as it tastes.” She said, went on to make herself comfortable on her chair, and invited Emma and Henry to do the same.  
There was a long silence.  
Henry took the first slice of his pizza and started to eat, slowly and quietly.  
Both his mothers joined in.  
Emma’s eyes went wide as she swallowed the first bite. “And you made this?!”  
Regina smiled. She nodded, swallowing a bite herself.  
Emma was startled. “I don’t think I’ve ever eaten anything this good.” She said.  
Regina scoffed. “I’ll take that as a compliment, even though you sound so surprised that maybe I should take it as an insult.”  
Emma shook her head. “Never! You’re good.” She said, and couldn’t help but think of her scrawny attempt to make pancakes two days ago.  
Regina looked pleased, though, as did Henry.  
“Yeah, you’re the best, mom.” He said, smiling brightly.  
Regina stroked his head. “Enough, you two!” She said, but really she was enjoying all the praise. She hadn’t felt this loved in quite a while.  
Emma smiled at her.  
Regina caught herself by surprise when she noticed how beautiful Emma looked. And she could see some of Henry’s features whenever she smiled. It warmed her heart.  
They kept eating in silence, but it wasn’t that awkward a silence anymore.


	7. ROASTED APPLES, ICING SUGAR AND POISON

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Emma kind of gets herself in trouble with Regina but sort of makes up for it I guess; Henry is very pleased; and absolutely no one is poisoned. No sarcasm here. Really not. I swear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously though no one gets poisoned you can read this i promise

“Well,” Emma put her fork down, “this was great.” Regina smiled. Then she raised her eyebrows as if she had just remembered something.  
“Don’t you dare get up!” She looked at Henry, too. Then she couldn’t help but smile again.  
She started making her way to the kitchen.  
“I’ll be right back with desserts.”  
Emma waited for her to be out of sight to turn to her son. “She made desserts?!”  
Henry smiled.  
“I guess!”  
“You guess. So you don’t know what desserts exactly?”  
Henry lifted his shoulders. “No, I don’t know!” He whispered. “She wanted it to be a surprise.”  
Emma had to smile at that.  
Regina could be so thoughtful when she wanted to. It was adorable.  
“You know, I can hear you.”  
Regina emerged from the kitchen with a tray of what appeared to be roasted apples with icing sugar on them.  
For a moment Emma had found herself fearing that Regina meant she could hear her thoughts, but then realized she meant Henry and, well, herself, whispering.  
“Here you go,” Regina served her desserts, “German recipe. Simple, but delicious.”  
She smiled, waiting for either Henry or Emma to start eating.  
Henry seemed comfortable enough and drank a sip of water.  
Emma, on the other hand, suddenly remembered all the times Regina had used apples to poison people and whatnot, and couldn’t bring herself to eat hers. She stared at them for a while, until Regina seemed to have sensed what was going on in Emma’s brain.  
“Oh, that’s right, Miss Swan, I’m going to poison you with roasted apples, in my own house, because you’re prettier than me.”  
She waited for a reaction. Unsuccessfully. She rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe i have to do this.” With that, she took Emma’s plate, cut herself a piece of one of Emma’s apple slices, and swallowed it down in a matter of seconds.  
Then she pushed the plate back where it had been and looked right into her eyes.  
Emma had to look down. Regina probably hadn’t realized she had just made this look even more like the original fairytale.  
She swallowed hard and took a bite of an apple slice.  
She waited.  
Nothing. Apart from the sugary taste, which was delicious as Regina said it would be.  
She felt a pang of guilt for doubting Regina, even if for just a second. She was sure her cheeks were as red as they could possibly be.  
She actually let her parents’ prejudice get to her. And in front of her son, too.  
Regina scoffed. “Oh no, what a shame, my sleeping curse isn’t working. Too bad.” She said, sarcastically.  
Emma was sure she looked as embarrassed as she felt.  
She looked down again.  
“Simple but delicious.” She said, quietly, and kept eating, trying to avoid Regina’s eyes.  
She glanced at Henry and felt relieved to see that he was absent-mindedly finishing his dessert, merely paying attention to what was going on.  
He put down his fork with a clatter, and looked at his mothers, as if he had just realized he had maybe missed something.  
Regina smiled at her son.  
“How was your dessert?”  
“Great.”  
“Good. Help your mother and bring the dishes into the kitchen, will you?”  
He nodded and got up.  
Emma felt uncomfortable and wanted to help, but she didn’t really know how.  
Henry went into the kitchen, carrying the plates.  
Emma stood up.  
“I’ll just—…” She grabbed her glass, then another. She was about to take The third, when Regina put her hand on hers. “You don’t have to.” She said.  
“I want to.” Emma replied, softly.  
They both smiled a little.  
Finally, Emma took Regina’s glass and made her way to the kitchen.  
She walked in on Henry, who had been watching them.  
He was smiling as brightly as she had ever seen him smile.  
Without even giving her the time to put the glasses in the dishwasher, he hugged her.  
“I’m glad you came.” He said.  
Emma hugged him back, still holding those glasses. Her heart felt… warm.  
“Me too, kid.”


	8. HAPPY ENDING

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bed time for Henry; apologies + a happy ending for Regina and cuddles for Emma. Well, not exactly, but sort of. Yeah.

Monday. 08:57 PM.  
Henry was getting ready to go to sleep, since he had to go to school on Tuesday.  
He had made it very clear that he enjoyed his mothers’ effort and appreciated everything they did for him. After hugging the both of them, he went upstairs.  
Regina looked at him leave, and Emma looked at Regina, mostly.  
Once they heard Henry’s bedroom door close, both of them exhaled.  
Unexpectedly, Regina turned to face Emma.  
She looked down at her hands. “Thank you,” she said, quietly. Emma wasn’t really sure what exactly she was being thanked for.  
“For coming.” Regina added, looking at her, now.  
Emma folded her arms, uncomfortably. “Oh! Uh, no. No; thank you. Thank you for having me. It was nice.”  
Regina raised her eyebrows, as if to say 'come on. really?!'  
Emma laughed a little, looking down. “Don’t look at me like that. It was nice. Really, it was.”  
Regina scoffed. “Yeah, because you didn’t end up eating poisoned apples.”  
“I’m sorry! It’s not like you’ve never tried to poison me before.”  
Emma immediately wished she hadn’t said that. It was hurtful. Regina had been different back then, she knew that. And they hand’t been… well, friends, back then. Or whatever they were now.  
Regina did look hurt by that remark, even though she did her best not to show it, and she did a very good job, too.  
“That was… well, before.” She said, looking down.  
Emma furrowed her brows. “Before what?”  
Regina started fidgeting with a bracelet she was wearing. She didn’t know before what, exactly. Just before.  
She despised Emma back then. She did. Even though, looking back, she felt like she had never hated her completely. She had hated her, alright, but not with all of herself. It was like this small part of her could never hate her. And so she herself could not full-on hate her, not even if she wanted to.  
And now she thought,— she almost thought she loved her.  
Of course she couldn’t love her.  
But maybe, just maybe—  
she did.  
She cleared her throat. “I– I don’t know.”  
Emma instinctively stroked her arm, like Regina had done to her so many times, and hoped desperately that such a small gesture, almost insignificant, could awake in Regina the same melting feeling it had awoken in herself.  
She managed to get out a small “Hey.”  
Regina looked up at her.  
“Listen, I’m sorry about the apple thing. I am. You and I— we’ve been through so much, I should completely trust you by now. I mean. You’ve practically saved my life a good couple of times and I’d say I’ve saved yours, too.  
So I really don’t know what kept me from trusting you earlier, but I know it was stupid. And I really hope you can forgive me because, yeah, when I got here you made it very clear to me that you didn’t want me to get in the way, but then you let me anyway. Regina, you gave up what you thought was your happy ending just to let me stay with my son.” She looked her in the eyes.  
“Our son. I will never be able to repay you for that.” There was a pause. Regina thought Emma didn’t have anything more to say, but really the reason why she had stopped talking was because she had too much to say. So much.  
She took her hand in hers.  
“Regina, I stayed for my son, but now I have so much more.  
I have a family.  
And that includes you.”  
Regina’s eyes were teary.  
“Oh, Emma.”  
Emma noticed how shaky her voice was. And that Regina had just called her by her name. That seldom happened.  
And every time it did happen, her name felt more… special.  
She did the only thing she could really think of doing at that moment.  
She hugged her.  
Tightly. And Regina hugged her back.  
It was funny how they had been through all sorts of things, but they had never really hugged before. And it felt so good. So safe.  
The hug lasted a good twenty seconds. Then they started to part.  
They looked at each other, without saying a word. There. At that moment they knew. Both of them knew.  
They loved each other.  
In every single way one could love another, they did.  
Emma wiped away a tear from Regina’s face.  
She was crying, too. She didn’t really know why, she just was.  
She stroked her arms, now, with both her hands.  
Regina put her hands on Emma’s hips as they moved in closer to each other, up to the point where their foreheads were touching. They just stood there.  
Breathing in the air that the other was breathing out.  
Then they hugged again.  
It was just too strong. Too much feeling, all bottled up for God knows how long, and it was all being released now and the inevitable happened.  
When they parted again, Regina did it. She kissed Emma.  
You could tell Emma wasn’t expecting it, because she stiffened, but Regina had caught herself by surprise as well.  
Never had she thought, when Emma had first arrived, that one day she would be kissing her. Never.  
The kiss was short, really, because Regina wasn’t quite sure of what she was doing, and she needed Emma’s approval to go on. She looked at her.  
Emma looked confused.  
Regina was already regretting her eagerness.  
“I’m—” she moved a strand of her hair behind her ear, “I’m sorry, I— I shouldn’t have.” Silence.  
Then; the last thing Regina had imagined would happen, happened:  
Emma started laughing. That kind of laugh that isn’t really loud at all, the kind of laugh that comes from people who are so happy they cannot even emit a sound.  
She put her hands on Regina’s shoulders.  
“I… I love you!”  
Regina was petrified.  
Emma couldn’t possibly be drunk because all they had been drinking that night was water.  
Before she could really ask anything, Emma kissed her.  
And, oh boy, did she kiss her back.  
Emma thought that melting feeling she had when Regina stroked her arm was something special, let alone what she felt now.  
It was like the first time they had made magic together; only at least ten times more powerful.  
When they parted, they had to hug again. They just had to.  
Their faces were buried in each other’s shoulders.  
A muffled “Emma?” escaped from Regina’s mouth.  
“Yes, Madam Mayor?”  
Regina laughed. Wholeheartedly. She hadn’t truly laughed wholeheartedly in so long.  
“About my happy ending…”  
“Yeah?”  
“I don’t think you have to look anymore. I think— I think now I found it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TOLD Y'ALL IT WAS GONNA BE WORTH IT  
> except that my writing is still really bad hAh i'm not particularly satisfied with this work but i still hope you enjoyed it !! thank you so much for reading this god bless your pure hearts and viva la swanqueen


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